


From the Ashes

by Selenay



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Community: dw_femslash, F/F, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-07
Updated: 2008-10-07
Packaged: 2017-11-24 08:18:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/632347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selenay/pseuds/Selenay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria rescues the girl and discovers that what you planned isn't always how things work out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From the Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> Written for doreyg who requested Maria, Susan, Romana II or the Rani (two out of four ain't bad), old school/new school, the TARDIS and some action scenes. I think I've got most of that in!

When she was seventeen, Maria considered her biggest triumph to be passing her GCSEs while helping to thwart a Silurian attack on London.

By her nineteenth birthday, Maria had revised her opinion and decided that her biggest triumph was passing her A-levels – straight A's, of course – while helping to avert the destruction of the Earth by a huge abandoned spaceship with faulty nav controls.

She took a gap year before starting university, telling the university cheerfully about the value of seeing the world and maturing before beginning a degree but actually spending the entire year touring England with Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde fighting alien invasions. It was that year more than anything else that convinced her of where her future lay and Sarah Jane reluctantly promised her an introduction to either UNIT or a newspaper editor if she got a good enough degree.

Luke, unsurprisingly, got a place at Oxford studying maths without a problem and Clyde stunned everyone, including most of his teachers, by joining Luke in Oxford to study computer science.

For Maria the choice was harder. Her father and Sarah Jane both tried to convince her that she should base her university decision on the course and institution quality. They reminded her that aliens could be anywhere and just because she was far from Bannerman Road, she would not miss out. Maria listened to all their advice and decided to study Biochemistry with Communication at Royal Holloway anyway. It seemed like a sensible choice for a future alien crime-fighter whatever she did in her day job. She commuted to university, studied hard and joined Sarah Jane whenever she could because she could not imagine a life without her. Over the years her relationship with Sarah Jane had changed from teenage crush object to become big sister, best friend and trusted confidant and nobody could take her place.

It was in the middle of Maria's second year that her father was offered a job overseas and neither of them could find a reason for him to refuse. Sarah Jane offered her a spare bedroom and Maria was sorely tempted, but she took a room in a house with three other girls a mile away because it seemed like the right thing to do.

Within four weeks she considered not killing any of them to be her biggest triumph and strongly suspected the flakey art student to be some kind of evil alien bent on destroying her sanity with acrylic paint and white spirit in the washing up water.

That was why she found herself sitting in a park two miles from home on a soggy February afternoon, wondering how she could have been naive enough to refuse Sarah Jane`s offer. Yes, it was getting a bit awkward explaining to people that Sarah Jane was neither her mother nor her girlfriend despite that long-held teenage crush and Maria knew that there were a lot of whispers around the college about them. But surely that would have been a small price to pay for sanity and privacy.

The air was still and foggy, too cold to be muggy and too dry to be called rain. It muffled some sounds and amplified others and that was why it took Maria a minute to notice the odd grinding trumpet sound behind her. The hair stood up on the back of Maria's neck and she counted to three before slowly turning, wishing that the Doctor had left a sonic anything for her the last time he floated through their lives.

There was nothing there. Or at least Maria thought there was nothing until she realised that the war memorial under an oak tree had not been there when she sat down.

It was a generic sort of memorial, the kind that could be found in parks and village centres across the country and that hardly anyone ever paid any attention to except on Remembrance Sunday. Nothing particularly special, not terribly attractive and the perfect camouflage for...something.

Maria was not one to run away or call for backup until she knew what she was running from so she left her bench and began examining the memorial. It felt like rough rock under her fingers, but there was a subtle vibration there as though from machinery far away. She crept around it, her feet silent on the sodden leaves, and almost jumped out of her skin when a door opened at the back. Acrid smoke billowed out, the stink of melting electronics leaving a metallic tang on Maria's tongue.

She didn't stop to think.

Maria crouched and ran in, shielding her face from the heat and trying to see through the smoke and angry red light. There was something on the floor halfway between the door and a hexagonal consol that was being consumed by flame. The heat grew fiercer as Maria approached but she ignored it, concentrating on the lumpy shape that moaned softly when she touched it. The figure was heavier than it looked but Maria grasped under its arms and tugged it towards the door. Coughing, almost choking, Maria pulled the unconscious person out of the ship and collapsed onto the grass just outside. She kicked the door closed and breathed in sweet, clean air.

Time passed and Maria grew cold, the water soaking through her jeans and sweatshirt. She rolled over and nudged the figure beside her.

"Are you OK?" Maria asked.

It was a woman lying on the leafy grass, her fair hair tangled and ratty and her clothes torn and charred. She didn't move when Maria shook her shoulder.

"Can you wake up?" Maria said, shifting close enough to brush the woman's cheek with her fingertips. "Please?"

There was no response at first but then Maria heard a low moan and the woman's hand twitched.

"You're alive!" Maria said with relief. "Hold on and I'll get help."

***

It was odd how people would immediately notice if someone looking shifty in a hooded-sweatshirt walked down the opposite side of the street yet nobody blinked an eye at the sight of a two women half-carrying another woman into a small green car. Maria supposed it was how people on Earth kept their sanity and continued to believe that aliens weren't real despite regular invasions by Daleks, Cybermen, Silurians and Zygons.

By the time Maria and Sarah Jane had man-handled the woman into the back seat of the car, the smoke had stopped billowing from the memorial and Maria pushed the door closed properly. Neither of them really wanted to investigate the interior again until they could be sure that there were no poisonous fumes from whatever had been burning in there.

The strange woman was still groggy when they dumped her in Sarah Jane's spare bedroom and she muttered something unintelligible before drifting into sleep again. There was a hint of pink her cheeks and Maria thought she might be pretty under the soot and dirt. She pulled a chair up beside the bed, accepted a mug of tea from Sarah Jane and settled in to wait for the woman to wake up.

It was late into the night and Sarah Jane had fallen asleep in the corner when the strange woman finally stirred. Maria put her textbook down and smiled as the woman sat up slowly and looked around. Her hair was a tangled mess and her clothes were still ripped and burned yet there was something in the way that she held herself that seemed regal and Maria thought she might be beautiful if she were cleaner.

"Where am I?" the woman asked, her voice surprisingly steady.

"London," Maria said. "England. The Earth."

There was recognition on the woman's face. "When am I?"

"2015," Maria said.

"Ah." The woman blinked twice and turned to meet Maria's eyes. "My ship?"

"Your ship is a couple of miles away," Sarah Jane said from the corner. "It was burning. Can I ask why a TARDIS is here in London with a working chameleon circuit?"

There was a long pause and then the woman said, "You know Time Lords."

"One or two," Sarah Jane said. "Who are you?"

The woman drew herself upright, her spine straight and proud despite her circumstances. "My name is Romanadvoratrelundar. A friend once called me Romana."

"I thought that they all died," Sarah Jane said. "A friend told me that your entire race had been erased from history during the Time War."

"I thought I was dead," Romana said. "I...I don't know. None of it makes sense. I shouldn`t be alive."

"If I'm alive and Sarah Jane is alive and we're all sitting here then you must be alive," Maria said.

"Yes, I suppose you must be right," Romana said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Maria Jackson and this is Sarah Jane Smith," Maria said. "We found you."

"I once had a friend..." Romana's gaze sharpened. "Did you once travel with the Doctor?"

"Yes," Sarah Jane said.

"Is he alive?" Romana asked.

"Yes."

"He visits sometimes," Maria said, "when the world needs saving."

Something cracked in Romana's controlled expression for just a moment and she looked young and scared. Then the mask came back and she shook her head slowly.

"I think that I need to sleep," was all she said and she lay down.

"Come along, Maria," Sarah Jane said.

"But-" Maria started to protest.

"We really should let the lady sleep," Sarah Jane said more firmly.

***

Maria slept late the following morning despite planning to wake early, Sarah Jane's sofa breaking all the rules to be more comfortable than most beds. She peeked into Romana's room on her way to the shower, relieved to still see dirty blonde hair poking out from the bed clothes, and wandered into the kitchen feeling sleepy and out of sorts. There was a note from Sarah Jane on the fridge to say that she had gone out to meet a contact so Maria poured herself a bowl of cereal and put the kettle on for a cup of tea.

She had finished her breakfast and was swooshing a teabag around in a mug when Romana appeared. The other woman was dressed in a loose shirt and jeans, probably Sarah Jane`s, and her bare feet and wet hair made her look somehow younger and more vulnerable than the dirt and torn clothing had last night. Maria found herself staring at the snub nose trying to decide whether it was silly or simply cute.

"Hi," she said, smiling shyly.

"Good morning," Romana said. "Can I have some tea?"

Maria held out her mug, then remembered what she was doing and fished the bag out.

"It's a bit strong," she said, pouring in some milk.

Romana sipped it and grinned over the edge of the mug. "I like strong."

It was much easier to concentrate on making another mug of tea than to think up an answer. Maria was sure that whatever she said would have been stupid.

"Has your mother gone out?" Romana asked.

"She's not my mother," Maria said. "We're friends. I help her out."

"Ah," Romana said. "Is she out?"

"She left a note, something about meeting a contact," Maria said. "Can I do anything?"

"Perhaps," Romana said. "Where is my ship?"

"In a park, not too far away," Maria said. "We could go there. I'm not sure whether it's working OK, though."

Romana winced. "Why not?"

"It was on fire, a little, when I found you," Maria said. "There was a lot of smoke. It was mostly out by the time we left it and I closed the door."

"It takes more than a little fire to kill a TARDIS," Romana said. "I saw...well..."

She frowned and stared at her tea. The sadness in her face was just like Maria sometimes saw on the Doctor's face when he thought nobody was watching him.

"I'm sure it's fine," Maria said. "We'll go and see it after you've finished your tea."

"Thank you," Romana said.

***

The TARDIS control room was a charred, burnt-out mess. Romana fiddled with the controls on the consol and hummed unhappily. Something sparked when she pressed one button and a dial came away in her hand a moment later.

"Can you repair it?" Maria asked.

The sooty surfaces felt greasy and slick under Maria`s fingers and the gunk stained her fingers black wherever she touched. Underneath the black stuff there were hints of the whiteness that had been the decor before the fire.

"Eventually, yes," Romana said. "I have spare parts and I learnt a few things in my time about jury-rigging machinery. I might need to stay with your, ah, friend for a while."

"I'm sure that would be fine," Maria said quickly. "She likes company now that Luke is at university. Luke's her son."

"I'll ask her, then," Romana said. "Perhaps you could pass me the polarising destet?"

***

Sarah Jane was quite happy for Romana to stay provided she helped out when needed. Maria spent all her spare time, when she wasn't studying or fighting alien invasions, hanging around in the TARDIS and trying to help Romana. She learned the names of the weird tools that Romana needed and could realign a temporal energy conduit in five seconds by the time the TARDIS was fixed. Luke would probably have been able to fix the TARDIS for Romana, Maria reflected as she scrubbed at a wall, but Maria felt quite proud of everything she had learned with her ordinary human brain.

Helping to fix the TARDIS had the added bonus of keeping her away from her housemates for days at a time and Maria reluctantly admitted (after Romana visited and subtly scanned her) that the flakey art student was fully human. Somehow, that didn't make her any easier to deal with.

The only odd thing was Romana's reaction to the Doctor. He only visited once during the time she was there, but she disappeared the moment his TARDIS dematerialised in Sarah Jane's garden and Maria found her TARDIS locked when she walked to the park. For some reason it didn't seem right to tell him that Romana was there and the Doctor didn't seem to notice the presence of another Time Lord on the planet. He stayed for two days, pottering around while his current companion visited her parents, and then he left again.

As time went by, Maria found herself dreading the day that the TARDIS repair work finished. Her old teenage crush on Sarah Jane seemed far away. It was seeing Romana that made her breath catch. Her heart always seemed to beat faster as she walked across the park to the TARDIS and time seemed to go too fast while they worked. They laughed together and sometimes Romana's eyes didn't look sad for hours at a time.

When the day finally came, Romana typed something at the consol while Maria pushed levers and then the air around them shimmered for a moment, golden light melting and coalescing into new shapes that Maria had never seen before. The new consol room was filled with pale blue light and high silver ceilings and the faint hum of the TARDIS engines. It looked magical and beautiful, yet the roundels and familiar consol were still there and Maria felt strangely at home in the new-old room.

"It worked!" Maria cried proudly.

Romana grinned, a genuine smile of pleasure, and then she hugged Maria tightly and Maria hugged back and it was a moment that Maria wished she could save forever.

"When does your summer break start?" Romana asked when she finally released Maria.

"Next week," Maria said, reminding herself to drop her arms and move away because continuing a hug after someone has ended it is creepy.

"Do you have anything planned?"

"Not really," Maria said. "I'll probably just hang out with Sarah Jane and Luke and Clyde. Nothing ever really happens in the summer."

"Would you like to take a trip?" Romana asked. "I can have you back for the start of the new year. We could tell Sarah Jane that it's a reward for all the work you've done."

"Seriously? You'd take me?" Maria said, stunned and feeling joy just starting to well inside.

"I'm always serious," Romana said.

"Of course I want to go!" Maria said. "You're really sure?"

"I'm really sure."

Maria hugged her and breathed in her scent and smiled when Romana hugged her so tightly she could barely breathe.

When Maria was twenty-three, she considered her biggest triumph to be getting Romanadvoratrelundar to kiss her after they saved fiftieth century Earth from Zygons. Nothing ever really beat that.


End file.
